Vello Liiv opens exhibit of nearly 300 mushroom photos

An exhibition of nearly 300 mushroom photographs by mycologist and photographer Vello Liiv opened Sunday at the Viidumäe Nature Centre on Saaremaa, ERR reported. The photographs may remain on display for a year or longer.

The images on the centre’s walls represent only a small part of the mushrooms Liiv has photographed over more than half a century. “There are about 3,000 species at the University of Tartu,” he said.

The exhibition is both artistic and scientific, said its artist, Anna Talvi. She said Liiv’s photographs are aesthetically composed while also showing the features that distinguish each species.

Liiv said he had not set out to take conventionally beautiful pictures of mushrooms. Of the 3,000 species he referred to, he estimated that he had encountered around 2,500 only once, photographing and identifying them before placing them in a herbarium. He said the part people see and recognise as a mushroom represents around 300 species.